I've been using Lenox 2" carbide-tipped bands for the last year or so and find it to be an excellent choice for resawing. We've resawn several thousand feet of material with it, from 2mm rough thickness on up, in boards in the 5-9" range. On the narrower (and softer species) cuts, with the saw in good tune, we can get cuts with .010" variation - wider and harder species will cause more deviation, but still very modest. The kerf is only .060", so it you're resawing valuable material, you'll have a lot less loss. We've used narrower carbide-tipped bands from other manufacturers, which also worked well, but were less durable and with lesser tension were less accurate.

If you're not concerned about kerf loss and don't want to spend hundreds on saw blade, the Timberwolf Band Mill blades (mostly 1.25" and 1.5" widths) are quite aggressive and can be fed quite a bit faster, but the kerf is almost twice, and of course they will dull more quickly. I would suggest calling them and having them recommend blades, but be sure you get blades for band mills, as their standard woodworking blades are max out at 1" widths, and in my opinion too fine for production resawing.

The carbide-tipped bands work brilliantly, and would be my first recommendation for what you're doing.

Should note also that your machine set-up is critical for accurate resawing - having your fence parallel to the blade, both vertically and lengthwise (moreso than fence to table, or table to blade) is what I've found to be the most important. Close bearing adjustment and having top and bottom bearings vertically aligned, as well as parallel to the blade, is important, as well. Be sure you get as much bearing support as possible without creating undue heat - even with the 2" blades you will create cracks with too much heat.

I use DriCote or similar on the blades to prevent resin build-up, which seems to help, esp. with the carbide, which have minimal set (actually no conventional set, the width of the tooth sets the kerf).

I always do test cuts, as band saws are fussy animals and don't seem to hold tune like most other tools, but perhaps that's just my saw.

We have a 36" Italian saw with a resaw feeder. I would like a carbide Lenox blade but have had good luck with the bi metal Lenox. It is 1 1/4" wide. We don't do a lot of resawing anymore. Usually odd stuff and interior door jobs that would involve 20 to 100 or so stile skins. If you are doing a lot the carbide would pay off.

I have never measured the accuracy as we usually plane the skins after sawing but they are fairly uniform.

We tried Timberwolf blades before this but they were not sawing consistant for thickness. They have several blades and maybe we did not have the right choice.

So the width of the blade I have not found to make that much difference in re-sawing. Wider blades do require more tension so that's one thing to keep in mind. And if the saw setup is sloppy the extra width may help the blade track a bit better....or not? In reality I've found I can re-saw pretty much the same with a 1/2" blade as I can with a 1" blade. Where the difference comes is that wider blades seem to be easier to find with less teeth per inch, which is generally preferred for re-sawing. They also tend to be a bit thicker so you'll lose a little more in the kerf waste.

I've used the Resaw King carbide tipped blades and while they do offer a longer life, it wasn't as much longer as I had expected. These days i'm using 1" Lenox Bi-metal blades and am happy with the cost to life ratio. Oh and for what it's worth a lot of the re-sawing I've done has been 5" wide skins for passage doors mostly out of hard maple, soft maple, and rift sawn white oak.

We run the 1" Lenox carbon steel blades on our 18" resaw. The small diameter wheel makes for shorter band life due to stress cracking and the 1" non-tipped blades have a good cost to blade life ratio. We liked bimetal blades but band stress crack failure made them less cost effective.

Stress cracking should be a big issue on your saw so I'd say give the inexpensive carbon steel blade a try and compare it to the more expensive bimetal blade.

I used the recommended 3" wide stellite tipped blades years ago on a Hitachi resaw. I've found that the 1" blades we use now do just as well as the 3" blade back then. Many people have stated the same over the years. I would not go back to wide blades.

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